Everman News

"Reclining Rose with Ranier Cherries," by Tootsie Nichols. ArtWalk When: 5-8:30 p.m. today Where: Downtown Abilene How much: Free unless otherwise noted What's going on: Half of the word "ArtWalk" is "walk," so ...

Behavior problems for Germecia Thomas began in first grade. She knocked pictures off a classroom wall, broke a clock, locked herself in a bathroom and ran away from her teachers at Souder Elementary School in ...

By David Casstevens EVERMAN, Texas - If Louis XIV reappeared and went house-hunting in Tarrant County, Texas, his search would end the moment he saw this place.

Texas graduated 68.5 percent of students in 2005, far fewer than what the state reported, according to a national report released Wednesday.

By MARTHA DELLER and DIANE SMITH Students in Fort Worth showed moderate gains in some areas, but freshmen and sophomores continued to struggle on the math and science portion of TAKS, results show.Only 44 ...

“The delay in mineral notices is due to the volume of leases, the delay in getting the information from the Railroad Commission and from Pritchard and Abbott, our valuation consulting engineers”

Property values in Tarrant County rose almost 10 percent in 2008, according to the preliminary figures released Thursday by the Tarrant Appraisal District. via Fort Worth Star-Telegram

It is among the first apartment complexes built in the Everman area in more than 20 years, Wells said. via Fort Worth Star-Telegram

How much: Free unless otherwise noted. What's going on: ArtWalk celebrates the upcoming Earth Day with a variety of free activities. via Abilene Reporter-News

“It's hard for schools to work with students when they come in the middle of the year and they haven't been able to work with them the whole time”

Slightly more than half the ninth-graders who entered Fort Worth district schools in 2000 went on to graduate in 2004, a rate below the national graduation rate of 70 percent, according to a report on schools in the nation's 50 largest cities by an organization founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Fort Worth's graduation rate for the Class of '04 was 56 percent, Arlington's was 62.7 percent, and Dallas' was 44.4 percent, according to Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation, which was prepared for America's Promise Alliance. Read more

“This boy was very well-liked, popular and played in a lot of sports”

Devin Villanueva was the kind of person you could never stay mad at. The 14-year-old Stamford High School freshman always had a big smile on his face -- punctuated with dimples -- and a joke up his sleeve, ... via Abilene Reporter-News

“We're still just waiting for the USDA to assure us that the beef we have is safe to eat, and then we'll put it back in our system for consumption”

Texas school districts that have been storing recalled beef were told Thursday by the Texas agriculture commissioner to dispose of it.

The districts have shelved more than 765,000 pounds of recalled beef as part of the nation's largest beef recall, Commissioner Todd Staples said.

Tarrant County school districts -- including Azle, Castleberry, Everman, Keller, Mansfield, Grapevine-Colleyville and Birdville -- were affected by Sunday's recall.

The Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in California recalled 143 million pounds of beef after a U.S. Department of Agriculture investigation revealed that some cattle were not properly inspected at the plant. The frozen beef was determined to be unfit for human consumption. Read more

A federal judge in the Rio Grande Valley sentenced a Texas National Guard soldier from Fort Worth to 38 months in prison Tuesday for his role in smuggling illegal immigrants during a high-profile border clampdown last summer.

Clarence Hodge Jr., 36, a veteran sergeant in the Guard and a third-generation soldier, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants from May through early June as he worked in Laredo on Operation Jump Start, an effort initiated by President Bush to rein in illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border. Read more

“It's to help prepare kids for a global economy, which more and more means being able to speak a second language”

A mother-and-daughter protest of Grapevine-Colleyville's policy requiring elementary students to take Spanish classes turned a spotlight on the district's curriculum.

For 15 years, students have been required to take Spanish, taught twice a week in a nine-week rotation with art classes.

When the story of Leigh Allison and her fifth-grade daughter Ashleigh's boycott of her Spanish class at Timberline Elementary appeared last week in the Star-Telegram, many readers blasted the district for requiring Spanish without the option of other languages. Others applauded the district. Read more

Randy Keck/The Community News: Junior Taylore Hayes in recent game action against Everman. via The Community News - Informing. Conne...

“I just tried to keep everything normal. I was trying to stick to the plan that I had made in my head. When he went back to work, I was going to call police.”

FORT WORTH -- The 44-year-old woman said she didn't see it coming.

She was in the kitchen cooking chili beans when, out of nowhere, her boyfriend, Joe Dickson, punched her in the stomach.

'I just fell to the floor, screaming,' the woman told a Tarrant County jury Tuesday.

The next thing she knew, the woman said, Dickson was tying her hands with zip ties and forcing her into the bedroom, where he put her 4-year-old nephew, Leslie Jackson, in the closet and then sexually assaulted her. Read more

“It might be less work and less angst over [realignment] every two years, but it would still create bigger problems.”

By TROY PHILLIPS Richland football coach Gene Wier says that when he coached in Kansas, district realignment was devoid of drama.Every two years, schools were told their classification before districts were ... via Star-telegram.com

“They're expanding and obviously the energy sector is doing quite well”

FORT WORTH-Halliburton Corp.'s former 340,869-sf office and warehouse footprint in Carter Business Park has been sold after roughly two years on the market to a long-time tenant who occupies 69% of the space. via GlobeSt.com

“We're not where we want to be, but we're on the right track.”

Several schools in the Birdville, Everman, Fort Worth and Northwest school districts now meet benchmarks for Adequate Yearly Progress -- the federal school accountability program.

The schools initially missed the mark, but won appeals this month to the Texas Education Agency based on several factors, including absent students and clerical errors.

Seven area districts appealed the status of one or more of their schools. The Arlington school district lost its appeals.

What is AYP? Read more

“I'm the kind of guy who gets pretty nervous coming out”

Up to this point, Highland Park had been a pass-first team that used the running game as a complementary feature in its offensive efforts. via WFAA-TV Dallas